Tire.



A. B. THOMA Nz P. H. SLAMIN.

TIRE.

APPLICATION FILED FEES, 1910.

Patented Feb. 28, 1911.

UNITED srirrns ANTHOJSiY B. Tii-IOMAN AND PATRICK H. aiSL 'QBS TO THE EMPIRE TIRE COMPANY, O

on NEW JERSEY.

T it may concern."

Be, it known that we, A1\'THONY 13. Tiro- I. a a are: and PATRICK H. SLAMTN, citizens of the -'lhis invention relates to tires; and it c0intire having a rubber tread portion provided with spaced and isolated inset frictio naill bodies, occupyingbut'a portion of tliemrea of the face of saidtread and substinitially leyel with its. ;surface, said fricserial bodies or insets comprising a plurality, of twisted layers or strips of rubberimpregnated cloth or, fabricglaid? in. the tire i i meq -Q I; V The desira ilityofproviding tires of the pneumatic;br'icushion type with" a rubber i the direction of tl1eii'-'lengt1 1'.and s aced Wa bit-c m ra ely e w a her: tread "face, such strips of 1 fabric being isted-f asrto give; edge'wi'se frictional L Qthe faceof the' ,.-tire.tread, andthe r bfIthe'insetbodiesand the tread 110-. jug aiilcaninegl into an integral mass; all as o a fully, -l1ereiintftei- 'set forth and as trcad faceis; of course well recognized since the,. yielding qualities of rubber make it easier and smoother riding than a tire with a iace of anyother. material. But rubber in;use-'is subject to abrasive wear and while its frietionalqualities under most circum'- stanccsarc very. great, yet since water does IlQlLl'efldll) wet rubber or actually contact therewith, in use-of a rubber tread upon wet,

smooth pavements or in contactwith'wct materials the tire is apt to slip or skid. Many eflorts have, been made to obviate these disadvantages of rubber in the tread whileretainiug its advantages, but they have not-been. as successful as may be desired. Ifigthc face of the tread be made of other material than rubber .the advantages ofthe rnbber tread are of course lost. -If for instance the tread be faced 'with a layer of cloth or fabric, as by looping a band orlayer ofcajnvasaround it, the frictional ii'alities securedare not much better sinceft e friction in use is, in ii 'c with the length of the cloth or fabric, while such cloth or fabric is apt; to rip or ra'v'el out. I Furthermore, while ubberp'er as readily undergoes a concave bend, yet in the presence of a'bridging layer ,AIYfIN, OF TBENTON, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGN- F TRENTON, NEW JERSEY, CORPORATION PigTENT oF gIoE.

ruin.

Specification of Letters Patent. Patented Feb, 28 1911, Application filed February 8, 1910. Serial No. 542,815.

0f unstretchable clot-h, this bending is not ready. It has also been proposed to provide inset metal elements, but these have not been:

the rubber at its sides under a condition of. strain, causing it to break. away readily.

Metal also tends to wear smooth in use, losing its frictional qualities, while its friction with wetmaterials is not much better than that of rubber. Wood hard rubber and other mat-erialsare, like the nietahlcompai'atiyely rigid and unyielding and while their frictional'oualities; in wet situations 'are better than those of the metal yet they suffer from. other disadvantages. Prae tically it maybe said to. be irrational to inset in the face of a tire which meant to be yielding and elastic something which is'unyielding-and not elastic. y

In the presentinvention a new type of tread face is attained combining the advantages of a rubber tread with advantages of a tread having material with a better coefficient of friction for wct and slippery surfaces. To this end, the tire is provided with a plurality of inset strips of rubber impregnated fabric placed longitudinally around the tire, but preferably not extending in straight lines. These strips are placed'in the tire in such a position: that their outer face is flush with the rubber of the -tread and are twisted prior to placing iuposition to give a cross-grain friction. By'reason of this twisting, there are no threads'or. fibers lying with their length in the tread of the'tire and thereis therefore no danger of ripping or raveling while at the same time a much better effect is se' cured. A stripof cloth or fabric, such; as canvas or other suitable material, maybe frictioned or coated with rubber on one or both sides, but. preferably on both and then twisted to give it the appearance-of a round cord. Prior to twisting it may be .foldedjn one'or more plies. Several of these 'cords may be twisted together in! loose network. In making 'the tread a plurality of these cord-lilre twist'ed layers of such bodies meshed.

- are advantageously disposed out of line with rubberroated fabric are laid in position and l the rubber to form the tread molded around them and the wholevulcanized, thereby converting the rubber into an integral mass tbrougl'iout. In the vulcanization, the 1 plastic rubber of the inset portions and that i .of the trea'd proper unite toform an ill-'- tegral mass. After vulcanizing the face of the tread presents a plurality of spaced and isolated frictional areas composed of the edge of the t\\'isted'strip's. These strips are preferably separated -by.relatively greater areas of rubber. In use, the frictional areas though flexibleand yielding being somewhat less so than the rubber proper yield less and form a lowshoulder to take advantage of irregularities in the roadway while at the same time the shoulder is 'not high enough to produce undue strains in the sur-' rounding rubber. And the cohesion between the rubber of the body of the tread and the rubber of the fabric layers is of course perfeet. And these friction producing insets nob-being rigid, there can'be no punching action Pt n underlying members of the ti re. The body of the tire carryingtheimproved tread maybe of any of the usual cushion ,or

pneumatic tires, as for instance t-he ordinary clencher tire carrying au"inue'rtube and having 'a shoe or tread of rubber.

In the accompanying illustration are shown, more or less diagrammatically, certain embodiments of the described-invention.

In this showing Figure l is a vertical section of an ordinary clencher tire or tire shoe; Fig. 2 is a plan view of the same; F ig. 3 shows several cord-like bodies of rubber impregnated fabric ready for positioning in a tire tread; and Fig. 4:' Sl1OWS one such cord-like body on an enlarged scale showing the twisting.

Numeral 1 designates a tire as a Whole, this tire being provided with a tread 2 and strengthening body 3. Inset in the face of the tread are a plurality of the described friction devices 4. As shown in F 2, these the line ,of the tread, both vertically and horizontally. Thismay be done in the manner shown in Fig. 3 which represents severai Placing these meshed bodies in the tire-.nnold, and then building up with rubber in the usual manner, these faces.

cord-like members may alternately'eoi'ne to the surface in a convex bend and disappear therebeneath in a concave bend, giving spotl like frictional areas, or they'may be tl sh with the surface at. all points and be merely out of line horizontally. Eithcr' dispositiou gives] a very good tread surface since it renders a maximum the engagement of the tread with minor irregularities in the roadway. In making the cord-like member, a strip or layer of cloth or fabric, such as canvas or duck, may be faced on one orboth ,1 t sidcswith rubbe'i -or rubber i-on'iposition and then twisted intoreord-l'ilce shape. Or the strip may be folded one or more times on itself prior to twisting. By this twisting, edges of the fabric are exposed and are brought. into the tread surface, giving an edge-on or end-on frictional engagement with the roadway, an engagement which is much more desirable than a face-on engagement of a fabric layer aside from the fact that the latter facilitates-involing and loosening of threads. In the tire of the resent invention, the body of each thread is'buried in the tread surface and cannot ravel out or become loose. The cross-edge friction of these strips supplements the frictional properties of the rubber areas of the tread face in a-very desirable way since ibers do not slip on wet surfaces as does rubber. In thecomplet-etire, areas of exposed fabric edge alternate with areas of rubber. And the inset frictional bodies being merely somewhat less elastic than the rubber of the tread yield with it. under pressure so that the easy riding qualities of the the are not impaired but they do not deform quite, so -much, presenting shoulder to take advantage of merely a low minor irregularit-ies in the roadway. The shoulder is not high enough to produce strains in the rubber next thereagainst, nor -is the frictional memfit) her rigid and stiff enough either to produce punching strains in underlying layers or leverage on the restof the tread.

Someof' the advantages of the present invention may be attained by disposing the cord -liko strips in other than crossing relation; but this relation is desirable as it forms boxed-otl' areas of rubber in the face of the tread which under pressure form similar low depressions, advantageous in catching and holding irregularities as Well as exhibiting in some degree a suction action on wetsurlhe tread proper may be formed of rubher or any of the ordinary rubber compositions; and similarly any of the ordinary rubber compositions may he used for impregnating or coating the friction bodies.

The cord-like bodies may be thick enough to extend downwardly through the entire thickness of the tread or may have adownward extension somewhat short of this.

\Vhat we claim is l. A vehicle tire ,having a rubber tread face provided with a plurality of inset wear pieces isolated by larger areas of rub-. .bcr, such wear pieces each comprising a layer of rubber treated fabric inset in the tread in such manner as to bring a side edge in the line of thctread face and such layer being twisted into cord-like form, the rubber oftlic inset wear pieces and that. of the tread forming an integral mass. 2. A vehicle tire having a rubber tread ltltl pieces isolated by areas of rubber, such wear pieces each comprising a twisted cord-like layer of rubber treated fabric inset in the tread in such a, manner as to bring an edge in the tread face and such Wear pieces being so arranged as to cross each other in an open mesh, the rubber of the inset Wear pieces and that of the tread forming an in tegral mass. I

f LA vehicle tire comprising a. tread face presenting alternating areas of rubber and line-like areas of rubber impregnated fabric,.

such fabric being inset in the body of the '25 tread in such manner as to bring the edges -.1 of the fabric layers in the face of the tread,

u I I .1 cuinferentlal lines ot the tire.

L A vehicle tlre comprising a tread face 1 being inset in the body of the tread insuch each such layer being twisted'into cord-like term and'crossnig and recrossnig the CH- l presenting alternating areas of rubber and (llSCOIlt'lDUOLlS curvilinearly-bounded areas of rubber-ni'ipregnated fabric, such fabric manner as to bring the edges of the fabric 35 layers in the face of the tread, each such layer being twisted into cord-like form and crossing and recrossing the circumferential lines of the tire.

In testimony whereof, We trtfiit our signa- -turcs in the presence of witnesses. i-LNTHONY B. THOMAN. PATRICK H. SLAMIN. \VitneSscs as to signature of Anthony B. Thoman: Bonn Cannes, Ones. H. Smlrnn. .Vitnesses as to the signature of Patrick H. Slamin:

A. Bonn Cannes, V. T. BONNER. 

